Home again and looking toward the (limitless) future

It’s 1:13 am Durham time, and I’ve been home for about half an hour. I’ve dined with my fiance and hugged my cats. In the space of time since the closing of our conference, we’ve all seen yet again the horrible and wonderful things that humanity can do: the shooting at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek just as we were getting out, and now the successful landing of the Curiosity Rover on Mars.

For such a time as this…

I’d like to share the vision statement my group developed yesterday:

Pacific Northwest Limitless inspires a cultural shift that welcomes and invites young women to engage in the work of the United Methodist Women mission in a way that is relevant, accessible, and focused on social action.

During worship this morning, I wrote the following commitment down–this is what I would like to be able to say along with the other young women of the United Methodist Church:

We will stand up for ourselves and our experiences, our knowledge and our newness. We will ask questions. We will speak the truth (in love) to power.

We will not silence ourselves in order to accommodate the institutional rigidity of the UMW. We will not stand idly by as the world changes, as the lives of women change, while the institutions of the Church, which do such good work, allow themselves to die out “the way we’ve always done it” rather than growing and living on for the transformation of the world.

The UMW unit at my local church has invited all the young(ish) women in the congregation to meet with them for a conversation about how we can be involved in UMW as younger women. I have great hope that these women are coming to us with open hearts, and that we can be a model for the way the institution can incorporate and attract my generation. I will share what I learned at Limitless, and the thoughts above.

And so, I sign off here. God be with you til we meet again at Assembly in 2014